Recap: Kamen Rider Ex-Aid, Episode 26 – Players Who Bet on Survival

As Kamen Rider Chronicle continues to sell like hotcakes, the Ministry of Health announces a recall and ban on the game. Kyotarou-sensei informs Emu and Hiiro to just be on standby while the Ministry handles the situation. Kyotarou-sensei believes it best not to inform the country that they will die if they play the game.

Emu is eager to try and save the people like they’ve always done. But Hiiro says it is not that easy. Tenma wakes up, overhearing the entire conversation and takes his Gashat back to fight the Bugster and cure himself if the CR will do nothing about it.

Emu follows Tenma out as he finds Salty. Tenma henshins and fights Salty. Emu henshins and tries to stop Tenma. But Tenma fights Emu to get his power ups. An alarm suddenly sounds and Poppy appears, warning Emu that he has broken the game rules by trying to help the player.

Poppy henshins to Kamen Rider Poppy in order to enforce Emu’s penalty. Poppy fights Emu who doesn’t want to do it with her. Taiga arrives and Poppy turns her attention to him. Taiga says they have no choice but to take Poppy on, regardless of their previous relationship.

But it doesn’t matter since Poppy unleashes a Critical Crews-Aid which sends Emu and Taiga flying and are forced to dehenshin.

Emu tries to get Poppy to snap out if it, but she just flicks his forehead and leaves.

Parado pops in and says Poppy’s memory has been reset and that she only worked at the CR to collect data for GENM. With Chronicle now complete, Poppy has returned to the Bugsters.

Taiga wants to know the purpose of this stupid game. Parado says this is what the humans wanted, creating games for entertainment and villains to release their stress on. So humans have only themselves to blame for bringing about the rise of Bugsters. But the Bugsters will not stand around merely to be game pieces.

Tenma sends out a message on his social media, calling for people to join his team to fight the Bugsters otherwise they will all vanish.

Across town, Graphite shows himself to a shocked Taiga. Graphite tells Taiga to get on his level before attempting to fight him.

At the CR, Hiiro says he understands why Kyotarou-sensei wants them to be on standby so as to not rile up the players. Emu is eager to go. Hiiro stops him and says they as doctors are the enemies now to these people. This isn’t some simple operation anymore.

But Emu is resolved to go and save everyone. Hiiro thinks about what it truly means to be a doctor.

Kyotarou-sensei holds a press conference on the Chronicle ban as Tenma and his new team take on Salty and Aranbura. Kyotarou-sensei refuses to answer questions about what’s really happening with Chronicle. When he hears that Emu and Hiiro have gone to where Tenma is fighting, Kyotarou-sensei decides to lay everything out on the table.

Parado joins Salty and Aranbura who have just about finished off the players. But Emu arrives and says even if he can’t save everyone, he’ll do everything he can to save as many lives as he can.

Taiga and Hiiro arrive to back Emu up.

They’re doctors, after all. They henshin.

Hiiro and Taiga take care of Salty and Aranbura while Emu fights Parado. Nothing Parado does matches up with Emu’s maximum. Emu delivers a Maximum Mighty Critical Finish and that forces Parado to dehenshin.

“You are the best after all, M.”

Parado leaves.

Emu checks out Tenma and the other players and sees they are all cured. Emu asks them for their Gashats. Taking Tenma’s lead, they hand them over and put their trust in the CR.

Back with his buddies, Parado orders Ren to roll out the update to Chronicle.

Episode Thoughts

It was an okay episode. A pretty standard “We won’t give up!” ep.

We did learn that maximum Emu can easily take on Parado. It was refreshing to see Parado get knocked around for a change. We got Kamen Rider Poppy, which I hope isn’t just a onetime thing. And they planted the seed for a Taiga-Graphite showdown.

Plot-wise, it’ll be interesting to see how they deal with people continuing to play the game even with the warnings from the government. And of course how the software update will likely address that possibility.